New ideas, impressions and experiences from the literary and translation scene in north-western Europe and Germany. Translators blog about interesting and unusual authors and trends in the world of translated literature. Goethe-Instituts from this region provide information about current projects and programmes to promote translation.

Archive

Montag, 10. März 2014

All tickets for the launch of Reinhard Kleist’s graphic novel biography ‘The Boxer’ at the Goethe-Institut London Library were fully booked within two weeks. This reflects the high level of interest generated by the author-illustrator from northwestern Germany, who has already established an international reputation for his biographies of Jonny Cash and Fidel Castro. Both these and ‘The Boxer’ have been translated into English and published by the ‘quirky’ London-based publisher SelfMadeHero.

Paul Gravett, the comics historian and ‘Comic Art’ writer, who has recently co-curated the British Library’s forthcoming ‘Comics Unmasked’ exhibition, was at the Goethe-Institut on 6th March to interview Reinhard and provide some fascinating insights into his work.

‘The Boxer’ tells the true and shocking life story of the Polish Jew, Hertzgo ‘Harry’ Haft, a victim of the Holocaust who survived the horror of the Nazi concentration camps by winning brutal boxing matches where the outcome for the loser was death. Haft managed to escape the camps in April 1945 and in 1948 he was able to move to the USA where he hoped to find his love, Leah, whom he had proposed to back in Poland when he was just 16. In America he took part in some major heavyweight boxing matches, always wearing shorts carrying the Jewish star of David insignia. His final fight was against the famous boxer Rocky Marciano. Despite going so far as to get himself hypnotised so he’d feel no pain, Harry was defeated and retired from boxing to open a shop, marry a local woman and start a family. He died in 2007, aged 82.

Reinhard Kleist told the audience how he came across the story by spotting Harry Haft’s biography, ‘Eines Tages werde ich alles erzählen’ (‘One day I’ll tell you everything’) by Alan Scott Haft, Harry’s eldest son, in a bookshop. Though intrigued by this little-known biography, Reinhard was at first put off by the fact that Harry was not a sympathetic character, unkind to his family and prepared to murder innocent German victims to ensure his own survival.

However Alan Scott Haft provided valuable support to Reinhard’s project by supplying extra photos of his father which were not in the book, and by touring the sites of the concentration camps with the author. Unfortunately there were no photos available prior to 1948, so Reinhard had to imagine how Harry would have looked when he was younger. Apart from the book by Harry’s son, the only other source of visual memorabilia available was a YouTube movie which revealed to Reinhard how the fighter had ‘lousy technique and lots of energy’. Reinhard discussed the importance of pinpointing particular facial features which makes his drawn characters easily identifiable in a variety of scenarios. With Harry Haft it was his 'unibrow' eyebrow line which caught Reinhard’s attention as a graphic means of representing his energy and determination. Kleist also attended some boxing matches in Germany to closely observe fighting technique, but was never a fan of the sport.

Paul Gravett commented on Germany’s surprising openness in terms of dealing with past atrocities associated with the Hitler era; with regard to the reception of ‘The Boxer’ in Germany, Reinhard Kleist said that it had received very good reviews and won two important prizes. Prior to his book, which was initially serialised in the German national daily newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, little had been known about boxing matches in concentration camps.

Reihnard Kleist. Pic by Goethe-Institut London

Finally Reinhard talked about some future projects he's considering, such as the moving story of a Somalian woman sprinter who against all odds represented her country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and then died in a boat accident en route from Libya to Italy. Another possibility is a biography of the rock musician Nick Cave.

Dienstag, 7. Januar 2014

London’s National Theatre is currently staging a very successful production of Erich Kästner’s children’s novel ‘Emil and the Detectives’, originally published in 1929. The plot follows the fate of a pre-teen schoolboy, Emil, who lives with his mother, a widowed hairdresser, in a small town outside Berlin. One day Emil’s mother entrusts him with the task of travelling to Berlin to deliver her hard-saved money to his grandmother. However, while he’s dozing on the train to Berlin, an adult stranger steals the money. Horrified at his discovery that he’s been robbed, Emil leaves the train before his stop to pursue the stranger. Feeling lost and helpless in the big city of Berlin, he eventually joins forces with a gang of children who, in a demonstration of children’s empowerment and solidarity, join forces to triumph over the adult-dominated world and get the money back from the thief.

The novel is recognised as having paved the way for a new style of children’s literature in terms of its progressive, realistic and empathetic portrayal of children and city life. It was a huge international success and has been translated into over 50 other languages, first appearing in Great Britain in 1931. The most recent English translation available today is still Eileen Hall’s 1959 version.

'You can’t slow down in Berlin!'

Kästner first adapted his novel for the stage in 1930, and it continues to be a popular fixture in German youth theatres to this day. The first ever British stage production was back in 1934 at London’s Vaudeville Theatre, but, while staying faithful to the plot, it set the action in Kent and London. Carl Miller’s new stage adaptation for the National’s Olivier Theatre, with its stylish stage designs by Bunny Christie, is very clearly set in 1920s Berlin, the costumes recalling Walter Trier’s illustrations in the original novel. While the stage design avoids the depiction of specific Berlin landmarks (the programme provides a map and details particular locations mentioned in the novel and play), elements of German expressionist film style and the famous Berlin cabaret scene evoke the spirit of Weimar decadence.

The stage set also vividly conveys a sense of the city’s fast pace, crowdedness, chaos and constant movement with images and evocations of high-rise buildings, trains and trams, bowler-hatted city commuters weaving between lampposts, the criss-crossing of streets indicated by neon grids, and an underground descent into a sewer network leading to a vorticist eye at the back of the stage. Although not a musical, the play successfully deploys brief musical interludes, including a 1920s jazz band and a jazz chanteuse, which serve to highlight and punctuate the action.

‘Stand up for Emil!’

While the stage setting and constant motion highlight the recognisably frantic nature of city life, it is the humour and warmth conveyed by the actors in terms of the individual characters and their interaction with each other which embody one of the original novel’s greatest strengths and engage one’s sympathy and interest. The close and protective relationship between Emil and his widowed mother is convincingly conveyed; and the characters of Emil’s feisty, bicycle-riding cousin ‘Pony the Hat’ (‘Pony Hϋtchen’ in the original novel); and the streetwise ‘Toots’ (Gustav in the original) are portrayed with a high level of humour, empathy and understanding by the young actors. There are, incidentally, three teams of children actors (including 50 support actors), who take turns to play the roles on different nights.

The first half of the play was for this reviewer the stronger, focusing more on character and plot development, whereas the second half was more action-packed, with a rather overlong chase scene, culminating in the actors taking leave of the stage and weaving between rows of audience members. The latter are urged to stand up and chant ‘Stand up for Emil!’ at one point, creating a near-pantomime atmosphere, while at the same time highlighting the message of children’s solidarity contained within Kästner’s original text. Nevertheless the play overall was engaging enough to hold the attention and interest of both adult and children audience members, and this production certainly holds its own with other recently successful family entertainment productions at the National such as Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ and Michael Morpurgo’s ‘War Horse’.

'Emil and the Detectives' at the National Theatre (Olivier) is suitable for 7 year-olds upwards and runs until 18th March.